CHAPTER 8: Beyond Basic Yogurt
CHAPTER 8: Beyond Basic Yogurt
Yogurt could well be the most versatile food in your refrigerator. When you start to make your own yogurt, you will discover more things you can do with it. In this chapter, you will find a number of recipes that cover every meal of the day — and just about every course of every meal. The goal here is to give you a beginning for your uses of yogurt. Some of the recipes are basic recipes that you can even improvise on. Have fun and be creative.
Recipes with Yogurt
Yogurt cheese
One of the most wonderful aspects about yogurt is it takes on the flavor of just about anything you mix with it. This yogurt cheese can be mixed with many items, from chocolate to peanut butter to hot salsa. It is easy to make and has endless possibilities.
Ingredients
Yogurt (Let the amount you need govern the amount of yogurt you start with. One quart of yogurt will yield 1 ½ cups of yogurt cheese)
Salt (optional)
Directions
1. Place a doubled piece of cheesecloth in a colander. Be sure the piece is big enough so when you drain the yogurt, you will be able to tie up the corners of the cloth.
2. Pour the yogurt into the cheesecloth.
3. Allow yogurt to drain into a bowl for 30 minutes. Save the whey to bake with.
4. Tie up corners of cheesecloth and hang over a bowl in the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours. How long you let it drain will determine the consistency of your cheese. The longer you allow the yogurt to drain, the firmer your cheese will be.
5. Put the drained yogurt cheese into a bowl and mix in salt, if you choose to add it.
6. It will store for one week in a tightly sealed bowl in the refrigerator.
Yogurt biscuits
Here is a very easy and basic recipe that employs yogurt as a “wet” ingredient in a baked item. If you have never used yogurt in place of milk in recipes that call for milk, give this one a try. Once you make this, you can use this recipe as a base from which to experiment further.
Ingredients
3 cups white flour (You can also choose to use 1 ½ cups white flour and 1 ½ cups wheat flour)
2 level tsp of baking powder
2 level tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
6 tbsp cold unsalted butter (You can choose to use 3 tbsp butter and 3 tbsp canola oil)
3 tbsp packed brown sugar (optional)
One or two eggs (room temperature)
1 ¼ cup firm yogurt (If your yogurt is runny, drain it through some cheesecloth for about 15 to 20 minutes)
½ cup raisins, dates, dried cherries, chocolate chips, or any other add-ins that you might want
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Lightly butter a baking sheet.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. Add butter and brown sugar.
5. With a pastry cutter, cut butter and brown sugar into the
dry ingredients.
6. If you are using the canola oil, cut it in after you cut in the butter and brown sugar.
7. You can choose to cut the dry ingredients together with the butter, brown sugar, and canola oil using a food processor fitted with a stainless-steel blade.
8. In a small bowl, beat together the yogurt and one egg.
9. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and lightly mix in the yogurt/egg mixture and any add-ins (raisins, nuts, etc.) you may have. Do not over-mix; mix only till blended.
10. Drop by ¼ cup amounts onto the buttered baking sheet.
11. Beat the other egg and brush the dropped biscuits with the
egg mixture.
12. Bake about 15 minutes. Peek at them at about 12 or 13 minutes.
13. Serve warm with butter, crème fraiche, and/or jam.
Tzatziki
(pronounced za ZEE kee)
This is a great dip of Greek origin for vegetables, pita, or pita chips. The cucumber gives it a refreshing taste, while the garlic gives it a bit of a bite. It is wonderful as a topping on falafel sandwiches.
Ingredients
4 cups fresh, homemade plain yogurt (Whole-milk yogurt is preferred here. Also, you may prefer a yogurt that is more tart than yogurt you would enjoy eating plain or with fruit. If you make yogurt specifically for this recipe, try to let it incubate for eight hours)
One medium-sized, peeled, and coarsely grated cucumber
4 crushed garlic cloves
2 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp dried dill
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Directions
1. Place a doubled piece of cheesecloth in a colander. Be sure the piece is big enough so when you drain the yogurt, you will be able to tie up the corners of the cloth.
2. Drain the yogurt into a bowl for about two hours. Retain the whey to use for baking.
3. Place the grated cucumber in a colander and allow to drain for the same amount of time that you drain the yogurt.
4. After the yogurt and the cucumber have drained, mix them together with the garlic, olive oil, and dill.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Pineapple frappé (smoothie)
This version makes a great breakfast or lunch. It is great with other dishes or as a meal itself.
Ingredients
1 frozen banana
2 to 3 cups of frozen pineapple chunks
2 cups of chilled pineapple or orange juice (or a combination of the two)
3 tbsp honey
1 cup of homemade yogurt
Directions
1. Place bananas, pineapple, and juice in blender.
2. Blend on high.
3. As blender is running, add yogurt and honey.
4. Serve immediately.
Frozen Yogurt
Making frozen yogurt initially seems to be a simple matter: make yogurt and stick it in the freezer. You probably flavor it with vanilla or strawberries and wait several hours before you take it out of the freezer and you have a frozen gelatinous treat. There are a few tricks to making frozen yogurt. Here you will find directions on making great-tasting frozen yogurt with and without an ice cream maker.
One of the primary difficulties that you may run across in making frozen yogurt is the yogurt you use has too much liquid in it. If you look in various recipe books for directions on making frozen yogurt, many of them will call for “Greek-style yogurt.” Greek-style yogurt is somewhat thicker than your standard supermarket American brands of yogurt and has a slightly tangier flavor to it. In making frozen yogurt, it is not the tangy flavor you are looking for, but the thickness. If you attempt to make frozen yogurt with a yogurt that is even a little runny, you will not be happy with the results. How tangy you want the yogurt you will use to make frozen yogurt will depend on your tastes and what flavor of frozen yogurt you will be making. Some flavors (chocolate, for example) are better suited to the tang than others (such as vanilla).
If you are making yogurt with the intent of making frozen yogurt, you will start by adding instant nonfat dry milk to your milk, especially if you are making your yogurt with low-fat or skim milk. Add a ¼ cup of instant nonfat dry milk for each quart of milk you use to make yogurt. The solids you are adding to the milk will help to make your yogurt thick and creamy. If you would like your yogurt to have less tang, let it ripen for only six hours. You may even want to check your yogurt after five hours. If you want your yogurt to be tangier, let it ripen for eight hours.
Before you proceed with making frozen yogurt with your homemade yogurt, be sure that your yogurt has not curdled at all. If your yogurt has a lumpy appearance, it may have curdled. You want to start with the smoothest, creamiest yogurt possible.
If your yogurt shows signs of being even slightly runny, drain it in a colander lined with a double layer of cheesecloth for about 15 minutes. You now will have a thick, creamy, Greek-style yogurt necessary to make great frozen yogurt.
Making Frozen Yogurt without an Ice Cream Maker
Like the last recipe, you can adapt this using just about any ingredients you desire. Again, the trick here is to keep the yogurt cold and moving around regularly. This recipe is being written at the height of peach season, which is why a peach-flavored frozen yogurt was made.
Ingredients
3 cups homemade yogurt
1 cup cream (you might substitute whole milk)
¾ cup white sugar
4 peeled and sliced peaches
1/8 tsp salt
Directions
1. Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Place mixture into a freezer-safe bowl.
3. Place bowl in freezer.
4. Allow to freeze for 45 minutes.
5. Remove from freezer and whisk mixture.
6. Return to freezer for 30 minutes.
7. Remove from freezer and whisk mixture.
8. Return to freezer for 30 minutes.
9. Remove from freezer and whisk mixture.
10. The yogurt should be well-set at this point. If you do not plan on eating it immediately, you can allow it to freeze. If you would like it to be a little softer when you eat it, you can microwave it for about 30 seconds.
Making Frozen Yogurt with an Ice Cream Maker
Ice cream makers keep the mixture that you place inside them cold as they keep the mixture moving. The cold temperature and the motion allow the mixture to freeze without becoming frozen solid. The following recipe is for a simple vanilla yogurt. You may add any ingredients you desire at the first stage of this recipe. If you are making chocolate frozen yogurt, you can add a good-quality chocolate syrup at the first stage. You may also want to try adding sliced fruit or chocolate chips. If you are making a fruit-flavored yogurt, try running the fruit through a food processor before adding it. Remember, you want to keep the liquid level to a minimum. If you add processed fruit, it is important that your yogurt is thick. If you do not care how rich your frozen yogurt is (that is, how high the fat content), you can add about 6 tbsp of crème fraiche to the following recipe.
Ingredients
3 cups homemade yogurt
¾ cup white sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Directions
1. In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients until sugar is completely dissolved.
2. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for two to three hours.
3. Place mixture in ice cream maker and operate according to manufacturer’s directions.
4. Place mixture in freezer if you do not plan to eat it immediately.
The recipes above serve to demonstrate just how versatile yogurt is. You can use yogurt to dress salads, in soup stock to make creamy soups, in main dishes (try a good tangy yogurt on a chicken paprikash rather than a high-fat sour cream), and, of course, in many desserts (try making a Waldorf salad — a fruit and walnut salad tossed in mayonnaise — using yogurt in place of the traditional mayo; the salad is not as rich as the mayo variety and has far fewer calories). Be guided by your creativity, and you will find no end to the uses of yogurt.
Case Study: Catha Link
Alpine Lakes Sheep Cheese
Catha Link makes the cheese at Alpine Lakes Sheep Cheese. She has been making cheese commercially for seven years and said she enjoys making cheese because there are so many different varieties.
“It would take a lifetime to try everything, and I never get tired of it,” Link said. “The hardest thing about making cheese is the time it takes. Waiting for the cheese to age so that you can taste it takes a great deal of patience.”
She said, “I love to make soft-ripened cheeses because after a couple of days, the bloom magically appears. My favorite cheese to eat depends on the time of the year, but I like sharp, aged cheeses and soft-ripened cheeses.
“A word of advice to those who are just getting started in making cheese is that if the bacteria makeup of your cheese is sound, never throw any of it away. Even if you didn’t end up making what you wanted, you can usually make it into some kind of cheeses that is good to eat. Be creative with it.”